Kristen Humphrey

This endorsement addresses the costs arising from the dismissal of the Applicant father's Hague Convention application for the return of his daughter to Florida.

The Respondent mother sought $64,379.73 in full indemnity costs and requested the order be enforceable as a support order.

The court applied the principles of costs in family law, emphasizing proportionality and reasonableness.

It found the Respondent's counsel's billed time excessive and dismissed the claim for full indemnity costs, as no basis under the Family Law Rules was established.

The request to deem the costs a support order was also denied, as the original application did not involve support issues.

The court awarded the Respondent $35,000.00 in costs.

The applicant mother brought an urgent motion for the immediate return of the parties' 12-year-old child after the respondent father unilaterally withheld the child following a summer visit.

The father had also commenced proceedings in Belleville.

The court found that the child's habitual residence was in Halton, stayed the Belleville proceedings, and ordered the immediate return of the child to the mother's care, noting the father's inappropriate conduct in alienating the child and making unilateral parenting decisions.